RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Street ven­dors say they will sur­vive de­spite the shut­down of all food out­lets by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter is­sued the ban yes­ter­day, fruit ven­dor Rudy Seer­aj said most ven­dors were ac­cus­tomed to hard times.

“It’s the peo­ple who go fine din­ing and mall shop­ping who will suf­fer. If we are shut down, we could still go in the gar­den and bub­ble a pot,” Seer­aj said.

Along the Man­a­ham­bre Road in Ste Madeleine, peo­ple were seen buy­ing dou­bles and pies be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment.

Some de­fend­ed their de­ci­sion, say­ing that they have no time to cook.

Mar­lon Car­ring­ton said he usu­al­ly takes food to work but ran out of time to pre­pare break­fast, so on his way to work he de­cid­ed to buy dou­bles.

Ki­mo Her­bert said, “I wake up late to­day, so I de­cide to buy some­thing. Not every­body has the time to cook.”

At the pop­u­lar Debe dou­bles strip, there were min­i­mal lines be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment.

Fruit vendor Rudy Seeraj sells oranges at Ste Madeleine.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

Rad­i­ca Ar­joon­s­ingh, of Port-of-Spain, said she had a death in her fam­i­ly and while on her way to see rel­a­tives, she stopped for dou­bles.

“We are so­cial­ly dis­tanced and wear­ing our mask. There are no long lines, so I don’t think it’s a risk,” Ar­joon­s­ingh said.

Raphael Paul, who sat eat­ing dou­bles in his car, echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments.

“As long as we are so­cial­ly dis­tanced and wear­ing masks, it’s ok,” he said.

Dou­bles ven­dor Jonathan Ram­lakhan, of Nir­mal’s Dou­bles, said sales had been de­creas­ing since the an­nounce­ment of a par­tial shut­down by the Prime Min­is­ter last week.

“The ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple are out of jobs so they have no mon­ey to buy food, so sales have been de­creas­ing since the pan­dem­ic,” Ram­lakhan said.

He added that many peo­ple stop to get dou­bles for break­fast or din­ner be­cause it was rea­son­ably priced.

He said those who make pur­chas­es are the ones who work and have no time to pre­pare meals.

Mar­garet Ma­haraj, who was seen wait­ing to buy dou­bles, said she usu­al­ly cooked but de­cid­ed to buy dou­bles yes­ter­day be­cause there were no long lines.

Radhica Arjoonsingh, left ,her sister Carol David, centre, and her husband Anand Boodram receive their doubles at Hassanali’s “D” Green Shed, along SS Erin Road, Debe, yesterday.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

Since the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment ban­ning the open­ing of restau­rants last week Thurs­day, there have been long lines at many street food out­lets. Some restau­rants even opened street-side stalls which cre­at­ed long lines. The Prime Min­is­ter has warned all cit­i­zens to stop con­verg­ing for food, say­ing cit­i­zens should stay in­doors as much as pos­si­ble and on­ly ven­ture out­side in cas­es of emer­gen­cies.